Potential New Year’s Eve Terrorist Attack Thwarted, FBI Says

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Noel Joshua Hadley

The FBI said on Friday that it thwarted a “potential terrorist attack on New Year’s Eve in North Carolina.”

“The subject was directly inspired to act by ISIS. The @USAO_WDNC and FBI Special Agent in Charge will announce details at an 11:30 am news conference in Charlotte,” it added.

NBC News has more:

Federal law enforcement officials announced at a press conference that Christian Sturdivant, 18, of Mint Hill, North Carolina, has been arrested and federally charged with attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization.

In a press conference Friday morning, investigators from the FBI, Justice Department and partner agencies said Sturdivant was inspired by the Islamic State terrorist group, or ISIS, and planned to attack a grocery store and a Burger King restaurant on New Year’s Eve in Mint Hill, a suburb on the outskirts of Charlotte. Officials said that he was an employee at Burger King, but they did not identify which grocery store they believed he planned to attack.

“We could be announcing a national tragedy. Instead, a terrorist attack was thwarted,” said FBI special agent in charge James Barnacle.

Officials said he planned this attack for about a year, but was planning an attack for “far longer.” Investigators said he spent a lot of time on the internet reading ISIS-related material and created TikTok videos about ISIS.

“This successful collaboration between federal and local law enforcement saved American lives from a horrific terrorist attack on New Year’s Eve,” said Attorney General Pamela Bondi.

“The Department of Justice remains vigilant in our pursuit of evil ISIS sympathizers — anyone plotting to commit such depraved attacks will face the full force of the law,” she added.

“The accused allegedly wanted to be a soldier for ISIS and made plans to commit a violent attack on New Year’s Eve in support of that terrorist group, but the FBI and our partners put a stop to that,” said FBI Director Kash Patel.

“It is essential to work closely with our law enforcement partners and to quickly share information about potential threats, as demonstrated in this case. The message from the FBI is clear — anyone who supports ISIS or other terrorist groups cannot hide and will be held accountable in our justice system,” he continued.

“Investigators noted the suspect referenced ISIS propaganda that promoted tactics used in last year’s New Year’s Day attack on Bourbon Street in Louisiana, according to Jim Barnacle, special agent in charge of the FBI in North Carolina,” CBS News stated.

Watch footage from the press conference:

The Guardian shared further:

He then reached out to pledge allegiance on an IS site, unwittingly doing so to an undercover New York police department agent.

With that agent, whom Sturdivant believed to be an ISIS affiliate, he communicated on a range of social media platforms and disclosed his intention to carry out the New Year’s Eve attack. Over the course of December, he sent a picture of two hammers and a knife, a voice note pledging allegiance and a message requesting help obtaining guns to use in the attack, FBI special agent James Barnacle said. He also indicated the grocery store he wanted to target – authorities did not disclose the name of the establishment at this time.

Barnacle, who is in charge of the bureau’s Charlotte field office, told the news conference that Sturdivant had been known to the FBI since 2022, when at 14 years old he was found to be in contact via social media with an unidentified IS member overseas. That person had told him to dress in black, and to knock on people’s doors and attack them with a hammer, Barnacle said, but Sturdivant’s family stepped in.

There were no charges brought at that time, Barnacle said, and Sturdivant was referred for psychological care and was off social media. The FBI then closed that investigation.

Sturdivant had his initial court appearance on Friday morning and remains in federal custody. If convicted, he faces a statutory maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison, prosecutors said.

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